“But Then the Enemy Would Adapt”

Defenders of the New York Times, the L.A. Times and the leakers who outed the Terrorist Financing Tracking Program say that the newspaper stories didn’t tell the terrorists anything new. But there is a big difference between knowing that we’re trying to follow money trails, and knowing how we do it. In that context, this interview with the commander of Israel’s Air Force, Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Shkedy, which appeared in today’s Jerusalem Post, is interesting. It’s a long interview that covers current events in Gaza along with other topics. But these comments are especially relevant to the controversy over our newspapers’ unwillingness to keep a secret:

Every three months we try to develop an additional capability. The [terrorists] are behaving in a certain way? How do we need to grapple with that? But I can’t go into details. This war is so complex. They are always trying to figure out what we’re doing; they adapt to it. I would love to be able to tell the people of Israel what we are doing new to protect them. They’d be proud to hear it. But the moment I make something public, the other side will adapt. So telling the public actually harms my efforts to protect the public.

Liberals stubbornly refuse to acknowledge what is really a very obvious point.